By Brody Arnold
College of Fine Arts and Communication Media Office
CONWAY — The University of Central Arkansas Percussion Club and UCA Department of Music will host the UCA Percussion Festival starting at noon March 4 at the Snow Fine Arts Center.
The event is free and open to the public.
This year’s festival will have several guests, according to Dr. Blake Tyson, professor of Percussion, including Florida State Professor of Percussion Dr. John Parks and Interlochen Arts Academy Director of Percussion Studies Keith Aleo.
“Dr. Parks is an amazing percussionist and teacher as well as being a professional recording engineer,” Tyson said. “[Aleo] has years of experience playing with many of the greatest orchestras in the world.”
Other guests include percussionist duo Tierra Fria formed by Connor Stevens and UCA alumnus Brant Blackard.
“They are incredible chamber musicians with astounding technical skills,” Tyson said. “They met while in graduate school at the Eastman School of Music in New York, but Brant Blackard did his undergraduate degree at UCA, and it will be exciting to have him back on campus working with current students.”
Tyson said all UCA percussion students would have a chance to work with the guest artists.
“All of the artists arrive in town before the day of the festival in order to work with, and rehearse with, our current students,” Tyson said. “On the day of the festival, students and teachers from middle schools and high schools from all over Arkansas come to UCA to see the concerts, master classes and performances that take place. At the end of the festival, there is a grand finale concert in which our current students perform with the guest artists.”
For more information, contact Tyson at 501-450-5236 or btyson@uca.edu.
The UCA College of Fine Arts and Communication includes the Departments of Art, Music, and Film, Theatre and Creative Writing, as well as the School of Communication. The College’s primary mission is the preparation of the next generation of artists, educators and communicators. For more information about CFAC, visit www.uca.edu/cfac or call 501-450-3293.
